Endorsements

The mission of the First Coast Tea Party’s is to promote the principles of our Founding Fathers — individual liberty and responsibility, limited government, and moral leadership.

Our primary responsibility is to educate our membership about the issues that impact our mission. We also encourage our members to activate their citizenship and educate themselves about the candidates who are running for office because they are the ones who will help us achieve our mission.

The First Coast Tea Party was formed in 2009 to protest the federal government's runaway debt, oppressive taxation, and attacks upon liberty that have so threatened this great nation. To that end, we succeeded in changing the course of history by ousting incumbents who did not adhere to their Constitutional restraints and fiscal obligations, and we helped defeat candidates who displayed progressive, liberal, or socialist political philosophies. This resulted in the unseating of the Pelosi House of Representatives, the election of Marco Rubio to the Senate, and Rick Scott as the Governor of Florida. We have only just begun to impact the political landscape of our nation. We believe that the Tea Party must play a major role in shaping the election of our next President, the Senate seat currently held by Bill Nelson, and several Congressional seats as well.

Locally, The First Coast Tea Party takes a strong interest in all elections to promote candidates to positions of authority who believe as we do in small government and fiscal responsibility. We have followed the race for Mayor of Jacksonville with intense scrutiny and vetted the candidates through our process – A Search for Leaders with “Vision, Values and Valor”. This process consisted of:

We applaud all who seek positions of public service and we are thankful that so many have done so during a critical time in Jacksonville's history. We especially thank the Mayoral candidates who participated in our process – Mike Hogan and Rick Mullaney, (both Republicans) and Warren Lee, (Democrat). One Republican, Audrey Moran, and one Democrat, Alvin Brown, chose not to participate in The First Coast Tea Party’s process.

We believe that it is important that the voices of the people – sometimes referred to as the silent majority – are heard. The Tea Party Movement has provided that opportunity, and we do not take this responsibility lightly. Our Leadership Council has met and dissected the information that we have gathered from our search for leaders with Vision, Values and Valor, and we have arrived at the following conclusion.

REGARDING THE CITY COUNCIL ENDORSEMENTS On September 28, 2010, the Jacksonville City Council voted once again to raise our property taxes. More than 200 people from the Tea Party Movement showed up to beg them not to raise our taxes. They did not listen to us. Instead, they voted to pass into law a huge tax burden for the citizens of Duval County. At the conclusion of that vote, many council members were seen congratulating themselves with high fives, as the people of Duval County watched in stunned amazement.

However, a handful of council members did not vote to raise the mileage rate which would have increased our property taxes. Instead, they did everything within their power to stop the passage of this oppressive piece of legislation, but in the end, they were defeated. We stand with those who stood with us and the following candidates are receiving our endorsement:

Those who voted for the tax increase did NOT stand with us and they are NOT receiving our endorsement. They are.......... Michael Corrigan – running for Duval County Tax Collector Jack Webb – District 6 Johnny Gaffney – District 7 - unopposed Warren Jones – District 9 – unopposed R. Brown – District 10 - unopposed Stephen Joost – At Large District 3 – unopposed

It is unfortunate that so many are running unopposed.

There are many other great candidates running for office. The First Coast Tea Party encourages every citizen of Jacksonville to review the research provided on our website www.fctpcommunity.org to make a well-informed decision and find better representation from their opponents where possible. A new team from The First Coast Tea Party has accepted the challenge to hold the new city council accountable as we move forward. We will introduce the new city council members to our team as soon as they are sworn in to office.

MAYORAL ENDORSEMENT

Elitism has played a major role in politics – at the Federal, State and Local levels. Our economy has crashed due to intended and unintended mismanagement and corruption and many citizens are aware of the stark realities that we must now face. The voters are openly questioning the intentions and challenging the integrity of condescending elites, and they believe it is time for the people to reclaim the power that was established for them by our founding fathers. Now is the time for us to embark on a new era of power, prestige, and productivity for all citizens rather than a handful of elected and appointed officials who see themselves as an entitled ruling class.

The men and women who run for public office are usually evaluated on their oratory skills rather than on the basis of their character and expertise. We believe character counts and our membership based our endorsement of this candidate on the following:

His alignment with the values of the Tea Party Movement

His willingness and ability to deal with Pension issues

His experience in labor negotiations

His work experience in both the private and government sectors

His firm understanding of local politics – the good, the bad and the ugly

His willingness to seek the input of citizens on most issues

His transparency throughout every aspect of our vetting process including financial disclosure

His track record of personally answering every e-mail from his constituents

His humility. He has a servant’s heart

His promise not to raise taxes on all for the benefit of some

His record as a leader, making one of the city’s most active offices more efficient, effective, and responsive to the citizens that it serves.

His message has been consistent and principled.

His demeanor reflects the courage of his convictions

His family’s roots are deeply planted in Jacksonville, and his love and passion for our great city strongly resonates with him

Our endorsement for Mayor of Jacksonville goes to Mike Hogan and we encourage our membership and those outside the tea party movement to vote for Mike Hogan on March 22.

We now encourage our members to Get Out the Vote for Mike and all of the candidates that we have endorsed. Find a candidate you want to work with on this list and support their campaign in any way that you can. Volunteer; send them a donation ; put a sign in your yard; host an event for them in your home and tell your friends and neighbors to vote for these exceptional people. You will find contact information on these candidates at www.fctpcommunity.org.

Finally, we understand that this announcement may trigger a wave of personal and political attacks. We stand by our candidates and we urge the voters not to be swayed by this vitriol, and remember that the truth has no agenda.

Personally I would like to see every position where there are 2 or more people running for office have a specific recommendation from the Tea Party. After all, a tax collector this year may be running for Mayor another year.... In some cases, the recommendation might say that the person is the lesser of two evils, and in others you might say you strongly support the candidate. By the way, does anyone know if you are tax collector now and mayor next year, does that get you 1 or 2 pensions from the city?

We also found it interesting that many who supported John Peyton are supporting Rick Mullaney. We are leaning towards Hogan. Like someone posted earlier you can NOT please everyone. We need a mayor who listens and then deals with it, while cutting costs of our city government and not raising taxes. Goodness knows a lot of tax payers' money was wasted in the past sixteen years. Each penny counts.

We just receive a card in the mail from the NRA Political Victory Fund, they are endorsing Hogan, just thought i would add to the endorsements. Also, look closely at the contributions in the Times Union this morning. Keep in mind also the endorsement from the Police and Firefighters are from the Firefighters, and Police and not their union heads. We have a pension, benefit problem in Jacksonville that is going to grow if it is NOT dealt with and we really need to vote for a mayor, that will listen to the people and roll up his sleeves and work with cutting the budget, unnecessary spending and duplicity in government departments at federal, state and local levels.

Thank you for responding to some of the concerns of the FCTP members. It was kind and gracious of you to take the time.

As for what I posted about our conversation on the phone, what I wrote is what I heard, and I am sure what you wrote in the second e-mail is what you intended. In all fairness to you I posted that e-mail because what one hears is not always what the other party intends to convey, and that is why I asked you to email me with your answers to my questions. Thank you for both e-mails